Category: General

Lethbridgian Theo Tams has made it to the Top 24 of the Canadian Idol 2008 competitions.

Ever since my wife received her iPod Shuffle this week, I have been trying to find a way for each of us to access the same music files in iTunes. We store all our music files on a separate hard drive, and until this week, I was the only iTunes user.

We us Windows XP, and we have separate user accounts. Since it took forever for me to find a solution, I thought I’d post it here. It’s actually pretty simple.

1. Open iTunes on my login
2. Export my library to a Library.xml file
3. Close iTunes
4. Open iTunes on her login
5. Go to Edit > Preferences
6. Go to the Advanced tab
7. Click on the Change button
8. Edit the location to music drive (e.g. F:iTunesiTunes Music)
9. Press the OK button
10. Go to File>Import
11. Browse to and select the Library.xml file

All done. 🙂

I lived a significant portion of my teenage years (from 11 until 14) in the inner city of Regina, also referred to as North Central or Moccasin Flats. It’s the most impoverished and most crime ridden neighbourhood in Regina. While things were not all rosy while I was there in the 1980s, things are far less rosy now.

Nevertheless, here are a few lessons I learned growing up in inner city Regina during the 80s.

1. Gangs exist.
2. Prostitutes peddle their wares on residential street.
3. Abandoned schools make attractive playgrounds for teenaged boys.
4. So do apartment building parkades.
5. Apartment building managers don’t like teenaged boys playing in their parkades
6. Turf wars can be settled without guns.
7. Some children eat only two meals a week.
8. Children start having sex at an early age.
9. When my brother and I threw a party, it was the first party our friends attended that was free of beer and sex.
10. A lot of children go to empty homes after school.
11. I made friends as easily here as I did when I lived in The Crescents.
12. People may still break into your house even if you live in subsidized housing.
13. People will try breaking into your house even if you bar your doors shut.
14. A big dog can be helpful in preventing people from breaking in through a basement window.
15. Some teachers don’t take any smack.
16. Schools without air conditioning can be hot during prairie summers.
17. 12 isn’t too early to start smoking.
18. Poor kids like sports.
19. Poor kids can succeed academically.
20. Rap and heavy metal are popular among poor kids.

It’s blowing wet snow in Lethbridge right now and temperatures are below freezing. It made me think about why I take public transit to work even though I have a car. Here are some reasons I came up with:

1. I don’t have to clean off my windshield.
2. I don’t have to wait for the vehicle to warm up.
3. I don’t have to drive carefully.
4. I don’t have to worry about other drivers or their driving habits.
5. I can read or play solitaire (on my PDA).
6. I get dropped off closer to the front doors than if I drove and parked.
7. It’s cheaper.

Last Wednesday, I visited Gastown while staying in Vancouver.

I noticed something very interesting. Once you get past the entrance, there are no lights and few signs (other than one-way street signs) to limit traffic flow. There are very view crosswalks.

Yet despite what would potentially be chaotic and dangerous seemed to have a poetic flow to it. The cars and pedestrians shared the street. There was no honking, and everyone seemed courteous.

I wonder what that would like like on a larger scale.

Now that the IOC has shortlisted the candidate cities to host the 2014, I thought it was time to review the logos as I did for the 2012 logos. My job this time around is easier since the committee cut four applicant cities from the shortlist. Unfortunately, I’m not that impressed by any of the logos of the three candidates.

First one is PyeongChang, South Korea. What I do like is the inclusion of the Olympic colours in the logo and the treatment to show motion in a left to right direction (implying forward movement). But it ends there. I understand the connection between the brush strokes and art of the Far east; however, I didn’t like the painting style in the Paris 2012 logo, and I don’t like it here. In fact, that leads me into the next logo.

Salzburg, Austria, also went with a logo that looks drawn. It also doesn’t include the Olympic colours. The colours of the Olympic rings represent the colours in the flags of participant countries; every flag has at least one of those colours in it. By not including all the colours, it suggests exclusivity. I guess they get around this by using continents in the centre of the logo. That, I suppose, is a bit more ingenious than simply using the colours. I prefer logos that include all the colours, however. Another thing going for this logo is how it represents both fireworks (celebration) and a flower (Austria’s national symbol). Granted the edelweiss isn’t blue and yellow.

Finally, Sochi, Russia. One of the things that makes this logo stand out from the other two is it’s sharp clean lines. I also like the symbol treatment trying to represent a star and a snowflake at the same time; although, snowflakes have six points, so it seems a bit awkward. Beyond those points, however, it lacks any sort of punch. Again, it doesn’t include all of the Olympic colours. In fact, I see nothing that represents inclusiveness in this logo at all. And what’s with the sales-growth-chart look? I suppose it’s supposed to represent mountains or something, but it’s lost on me.

I guess if I had to choose my favourite, I would have to pick Salzburg. It’s probably the most imaginative of the three. But calling it my favourite may imply I adore it. And I don’t.

This person seems to think renting a house is more beneficial than buying. Given the fact that I have already built up enough equity in my home to not only pay off the mortgage, but to take in cash the value of my mortgage (in other words, my house has doubled in value), I have to disagree in my case.

I just finished reading “How To Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. It’s an excellent book and showed me several places where I need to improve in interacting with others.

The book is written in chunks, with each chunk (chapters really) elaborating on a principle. I listed these principle (and their corresponding sections) below for your enjoyment. If anyone has read it, I’d be interested in your thoughts as well.

Fundamental Techniques in Handling People

1. Don’t criticize, condemn or complain.
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation.
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want.

Six ways to make people like you

1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
2. Smile.
3. Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
5. Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.
6. Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely.

Win people to your way of thinking

1. The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
2. Show respect for the other person’s opinions. Never say, “You’re wrong.”
3. If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
4. Begin in a friendly way.
5. Get the other person saying “yes, yes” immediately.
6. Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
7. Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers.
8. Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view.
9. Be sympathetic with the other person’s ideas and desires.
10. Appeal to the nobler motives.
11. Dramatize your ideas.
12. Throw down a challenge.

Be a Leader: How to Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment

1. Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
2. Call attention to people’s mistakes indirectly.
3. Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
4. Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
5. Let the other person save face.
6. Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be “hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.”
7. Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
8. Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
9. Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest.

Google Personalised Homepage now has themes. And not just the Yahoogroups kind of themes either.

http://www.google.com/ig

Oh, you may be asking yourself, “Woah! Kim Siever is on a diet.” That all depends on what you call a diet. Let’s just say in the last eight years or so, I have not had a large weight gain (more than five pounds). So what’s my secret?

1. Don’t eat crap. Eat healthy food and a wide variety of it. Sometimes my breakfast consists of an butter-fried egg and mozzarella cheese on two pieces of buttered toast and eaten like a sandwich. Sometimes it’s an apple, grapefruit, orange and banana combined in a blender. Sometimes it’s a bowl of Cheerios. Sometimes it’s all three. I never eat crap like Fruit Loops or Pop Tarts or that sort of thing. And when I do eat something iffy like a cinnamon bun, it’s once or twice a year.
2. Don’t sweat it if you do eat crap. Occassionally. Since I eat a wide variety of healthy foods, I don’t feel guilty when I occasionally eat something indulgent (like a Cheesecake Cafe banana split cheesecake). I know that in the long run, occasional treats (high sugar, or high fat or high salt) do not ruin my health as long as I have a mostly healthy and varied diet.
3. Rarely stuff yourself. Some of you who know me may be laughing yourself silly at hearing me say this. The truth is though that I rarely stuff myself. When I do, it’s at an all-you-can eat buffet and my Scottish/Dutch background forces me to get my money’s wroth. But it’s only a couple of times per year and doesn’t affect my long-term health.
4. Don’t worry about five pounds. If you are five pounds overweight (even ten pounds really), don’t worry about it. Especially, if it’s been that way for a long time. Five pounds will not affect your long term health, and accepting it will improve your self confidence.

Overall, my philosophy is to simply be healthy. I eat what I want, but I eat healthy.

What tips do you have?